2 reloading questions:
 

#1/ I made the mistake of using too much resizing lubricant on a casing. As a result, the casing has thee very small indentation just below the shoulders after pressing it into the resizing die. Should I discard this casing or can I fire safely as it will regain its shape in the chamber and be safe?

#2/ What do I do with a primed casing which is unsafe to fire? Ie, it now has a live primer but is not safe to reload and fire. Can I chamber it and fire the primer then dispose of the casing?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Replied in red

Similar question....my buddies' Norc T97 ejector is really hard on 5.56 brass.Sometimes it leaves just a barely perceivable small dent about 1/2 way up the casing,other times it's a distinct deep crease/dent.Are these worth saving to reload or just scrap'em?
I'm assuming the very small dented ones would be ok?

Tough call, lighter loads could be ok, but anything near full pressure will likely give short case life.

If you shoot those primers your going to get some sparks out of barrel so watch what it's pointed at.

Small rounded dents are no problem, and may often disappear during FL resizing.

Deep dents with creases are another matter, and must be carefully evaluated.
In an expensive case I would consider fire-forming the dent using the COW method,
but 223Rem cases are not worth the primer, powder or time to load and fire-form.

Good Luck, YMMV.

#1 - answered elsewhere in thread.

#2 - Firing the primer is the safest,
but I have carefully de-primed and reused many hundreds of unfired primers.
I do it carefully and gently using a universal de-priming die, always wearing safety glasses and ear muffs, keep my face away, and check first that the cat is not in the room.
Never had one go off, YET.
I would not try this with crimped primers.

I use the removed primers for fire-forming and fouling rounds, never had one fail to fire.

Good Luck, YMMV.

I would also take your die apart and clean the excess lube out of it.

I have also done this - zero primers detonated. I initially put a few drops of oil into the case to "kill" the primer, but since then have found that unnecessary...

I have de-primed a lottt of cases using a die. I screw the depriming pin quite far. I have never had one go off. If you arent sure soak the cases in water for a while first. I will say that I have never reused primers. For the price i just soak them in oil and despose of.

Recognize that if primer does ignite in a press during depriming - the naughty stuff can blow out both ends - the case neck on the top and through the drop hole in the shell holder. This unsafe practice could be made a little safer by draping a towel over the works.

Soaking primers is a waste of time. It does not deactivate most of them. Try soaking with whatever you want for 24 hours, dump out, put in gun, it will still go bang.

Shooting the primer is more fun, punching them out gently works just fine, have done it so many times I can't count a NEVER had one go off accidentally. We worked really hard and finally managed to set some off depriming with a die. It took a lot of trying and you had to wack them hard and fast with the deprime pin to get them to go off. Even when they do, it is a primer, they don't make much pop. NOTHING serious happened, they just made a pop sound. we did have to clean a little crud out of the die after setting off a few.

I never had a lube dent that didnt blow out just fine. Now i use imperial sizing wax put it on with my fingers one at a time as im sizing and never get lube dents

X2

#1 - I would go ahead and try to fire form the dented brass.

#2 - soak the brass in water for a few minutes then decap shoule be no problem

Great advice
 

As far as saving the primer is concerned. If you don't want to load the brass and don't want to fire it in your rifle (I agree with Dick) I wouldn't try to de-prime them.

You haven't lived until one goes BANG when you try to get it out!

They aren't very expensive, but I'd get a paper route again before I tried to de-prime another one and hope it didn't fire.

I would pay money to have been able to see that happen. LOL.

I've deprimed many live primers, had a few pop but nothing much happens. I just make sure safety squints are engaged and proceed!

De priming live primers isn't a big deal, I've done it lots. My old man had one go off on him, almost gave him a stroke but he was fine. I suggest to just not get too rammy when doing so.